No creative teams enjoy playing pressing opposition - witness Ajax getting turned over the other week. And you are spot on as this is the weakness that will have to be addressed in the summer, especially on the flanks.

I enjoy reading your posts but you can be a little negative at times! There are upgrades available but they play for the elite clubs of Europe, on £200k plus per week and will cost you over £75m to buy!

We lack the players in a few positions and the fitness, mentality, tactics, systems to deal with teams that play with high intensity and press/deny us space.

The Watford game was the proverbial "game of 2 halves" and only the 3rd goal eventually snuffed out the immense problems they were giving us from the 45th minute. Their manager had obviously told them to start pressing and denying us space and time. It is our biggest problem. by a mile IMO.

We need more pace, physicality, allied to great technique, in midfield , a better left back defensively despite Arfur recent improvements. I am hopeful now that Fredericks will continue to improve as he now looks good enough aside from his passing which can be coached to some extent.

We also need more mobility up front as an option. Above all this we need to see every player in the team willing to track back and deny the opposition space and time.

The technique across the team has improved but there are still a few players who give the ball away too often and cheaply with poor passing or decision making. Unfortunately, although he has undoubted strengths Antonio is one of them, Fredericks needs to improve his distribution as does young Diop and Arnautovic, Lanzini and Anderson are all guilty of giving the ball away with stray or poor passing at times.

In other words, ( less of them :-) ) to get better as a squad / team we need pace and strength allied to better technique and work rate across the team. That will IMO see us better equipped to handle the Brightons, Burnleys or other limited but hard working sides that press us into mistakes.

As many have said, its all about recruiting or promoting some younger players into the squad and over the next season see them replace some as first team starters. Does not mean the end of Noble but a change of role ( he has never had the legs to be a holding midfielder) and him being prepared to be more of a back up.

I pray we purchase 2 or 3 high quality, young and up and coming players as opposed to more older, freebies on high wages types.

We had a very 'mixed' season where we suffered from a combination of inconsistency and appalling bad luck regarding injuries. Wolves, Everton and Leicester have had good seasons and been more consistent.

Essentially we have a good squad, we will get rid of fringe players and bring in some young hungry quick players to replace them. MP knows what he's doing.

I actually think that next season we will have a real chance of putting pressure on the current top 6. Let's face it, Man U are woeful and had they not had the mid season new manger bounce' they would be in a far worse position. Arsenal have a decent squad (not a great squad) and Spurs need to spend big to keep their positon in the league. Next year will be very interesting if we can keep our injury list down to a max of 5 at any one time!

Block 10:05 Mon May 13Re: ⚽ Watford v West Ham Official Match Thread FT 1-4 w4, I actually think we're better than you're making us out to be, our issue has been consistency.____

hasnt that always been our issue? We've had some fantastic results and days out this year- man u, chelsea arsenal at home - spurs and man u away ( we still lost at man u btw )... but weve generally got one or two of those in us - I think we lack bollox in key areas of the park at key areas of the game ( yesterday was prime example where we just stopped playing ) and arent smart enough to close out games ( palace away, leicester at home anyone? )

I know end of the season everyone bar man city is a little narked however you look around us and I think we're already where we will likely be next season- the teams around/above us are better prepped already to go onto the next stage